


Rise of the Bossy Big Sister

by OmnipresentNuance



Series: Five Girls, One Boy [5G1B AU] [3]
Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: 5G1B AU, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Big Sisters, Bossy, Gen, Little Brothers, Reboot, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24883252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmnipresentNuance/pseuds/OmnipresentNuance
Summary: Lynn Sr. and Rita have a weekend vacation planned and they believe Lori is now old enough to handle being in charge of her siblings and the house by herself for the duration. With this huge responsibility and an awkward insecure stage she’s going through, Lori may feel the need to bring out a newer, stricter side of her to make sure everything goes smoothly. [5G1B AU]
Series: Five Girls, One Boy [5G1B AU] [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782301
Kudos: 5





	Rise of the Bossy Big Sister

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I welcome you all back again. Time to do another entry of my personally cherished 5G1B AU! Yay for that!
> 
> For this here third entry of it, we get to see Lori handle her biggest challenge by far in her life yet, all while struggling through something of an awkward stage. Yes, it's very much similar to the one briefly shown in that one moment where Lynn Sr. uploaded that one picture of Lori in "Anti-Social", and here I wanted to incorporate that into this story and the AU overall. Additionally, it'll serve as a reasoning as the title and summary suggest of reintroducing another component of Lori's character, that being her bossy side.
> 
> One other thing I'll mention is that in addition to the ages of the current siblings, I'll now be adding the year in which each story takes place in. Like I've said before, the first several stories of these are an age progression saga, which is also going to be name for this first portion of this AU. For further reference, the previous two stories "Humble New Beginnings" and "A Day in the Life of a Baby Loud Boy" take place in the years 2008 and 2009 respectively.
> 
> That's about it for an intro, so how about we just proceed onward then? Sounds good to me! Enjoy!
> 
> The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.
> 
> Year 2010  
> Ages:  
> Lori - 12  
> Leni - 10  
> Luna - 8  
> Luan - 6  
> Lynn - 4  
> Lincoln - 2

During the afternoon hours one Friday, eager anticipation was building for the Loud family's heads of the household, Lynn Sr. and Rita. In just a few more minutes time, they were going away for the weekend on a vacation for the two of them, something they hadn't done in twelve years. Of course, those twelve years consisted of having and raising their six kids, so extended time out of the house was almost nonexistent. But the circumstances have changed and the pair were able to squeeze in some time for themselves to spend together for the weekend.

At the moment, they were currently engaging in some last minute packing of their things in their bedroom and other preparations before heading off.

"Okay, I think that's all we need." Rita said, "Oh, I can't believe we're finally having even just a couple of days away from the house for ourselves!"

"You're telling me, honey! This is something that's well deserved for a long time coming." Lynn Sr. agreed.

"Yeah, and not only that, this is going to be a huge test for Lori on top of that with her being in charge." Rita added.

"Oh, no kidding. I hope she's ready for the task at hand. I mean, a whole weekend of just herself and her siblings? She's done a lot in being there for them, but this is a whole new level of responsibility." Lynn Sr. brought up.

"Indeed it is, but I'm confident she can handle it. And besides, it's not like we're going away for the whole weekend altogether. The only full day they'll be left alone is tomorrow on Saturday and we'll be back at some point in the afternoon on Sunday." Rita pointed out.

"Yeah, but technically speaking if you combined the latter half of today once we leave and the first half of Sunday before we come back home, that does added up to an equivalent of two whole days of just them." Lynn Sr. said, "And it's not that I'm lacking in confidence over Lori's abilities, Rita, but she is also going through some kind of phase and I do wonder it that might make things harder on her as a result."

"Yes she is, but she's shown us time and again how responsible she is with her siblings and I don't see this being any different, so I believe she'll over overcome. Plus, personally the only challenges I see is with handling Lynn and Lincoln. They're really become...how shall put it nicely, very rambunctious as of late." Rita said with a chuckle.

Lynn Sr. laughed, "That's certainly has been the case for sure. And hey, Leni, Luna and Luan have also shown varying degrees of responsibility themselves, so it's not like Lori will need to be keeping them in line in particular and those three I'm betting are going to help her out with LJ and Lincoln."

Meanwhile as they were getting everything set for their trip, Lori was upstairs in her room readying herself mentally for what will be without question the biggest test of her abilities and responsibilities as the oldest sister to date. She's had multiple upon multiple times of being left in charge over her siblings whenever their parents were gone for a few hours at a time, but the span of a weekend will be a whole different experience.

With a new experience and heightened responsibility also came additional anxiety, and what didn't exactly help is that Lori was going through what she would describe as an awkward stage in her life. She looked herself in the mirror with in her room and saw the physical abnormalities from the neck upward that cropped up since entering the latest year of her life. A pair of glasses adorned her eyes, a set of braces were binding her teeth together and a break out of acne across her face had shaken her normally positive outlook and instilled major insecurity issues along the way.

But in spite of these, Lori wasn't going to shun or shirk away from her weekend duties, not one little bit. If anything, these next couple of days might just be the thing to give her some confidence boosting. She starting believing that in the lead up to her parents' vacation and subsequently leaving her in charge during then, she needed to bring out a new side of her, one that defies the awkwardness she's had taken over her before then. Something of a side that wasn't afraid of telling it like it is and enforcing rules and proper behavior among her siblings, even if they have problems with it.

Her reflection in the mirror now showing a more determined look on her face, Lori grinned and took a deep breath.

"You've got this, Lori. You've literally got it under control."

Those quick words of motivation added in a hint more confidence into her system and as she was walking away from the mirror, she could hear the voice of her father calling out.

"Kids, can all gather near the front door, please?"

As Lori was following his request, she heard a sudden rumbling presumably that of her siblings rushing on down the stairs. Leaving her room, she just barely caught a blur of them arriving downstairs.

However, she noticed the one exception in this case being Lincoln. Her toddler little brother stood near the top of the stairs looking really nervous. Stairs still weren't exactly an obstacle he had conquered yet at his age.

"Hey, I've got you, Lincoln." Lori said to him with a smile.

Lincoln looked up to his older sister squealing happily, raising his arms up at her. He was brought up into Lori's arms and she carried him down the stairs to join up with the rest of their siblings to hear what their parents had to say.

"All right, kids, your mother and I are just about to be ready to leave for our vacation, so we're going to remind you a few things before we do." Lynn Sr. said.

"Indeed, and the most important thing is that you all must understand the magnitude of the situation you're going to be in for the next couple of days. As we've told you before, your father and I weren't so sure about this setup at first, and if we were to be gone for a day or two longer, we would've chosen to have Pop-Pop or Aunt Ruth either come over and stay with you or for you to spend the weekend at either of their places instead." Rita added.

"But after careful consideration, and some convincing from Lori I might add, we feel confident enough to leave you kids under her charge for the weekend we're gone." Lynn Sr. said.

"Now, just as a reminder to you girls and Lincoln, whatever she says goes, okay?" Rita reminded them.

"Yes, Mom." Leni, Luna and Luan answered in unison.

"Got it, Mommy!" Lynn Jr. said exuberantly.

"Uh-huh, Mommy." Lincoln added in sweet toddler fashion.

"Well, that's good to hear." Rita said, turning her gaze to her oldest daughter, "Now one last thing to you, Lori. Are you absolutely sure you can handle this?"

"Totally, Mom. You and Dad both can depend on me like you know I you always can." Lori replied very confidently, "And don't worry, I know to call you if anything should really go wrong, plus I know about the other emergency phone numbers I can use whenever you're not available."

"Well, I'd say that works out for the both of us. Now let's get going, honey! Fun and relaxation, here we come!" Lynn Sr. declared.

Rita grinned and chuckled, "All right, we'll be back home at some point on Sunday afternoon. Again, do as Lori says, but you kids still have fun, okay? Bye!"

As she and Lynn Sr. headed out the front door and into Vanzilla, the kids all waved and said their goodbyes and well wishes on them having a good time as well. Once their parents had driven away, Lori shut the front door and had something to say of her own.

"Okay, can you guys all go over to the couch for a moment?" She requested, "And can someone take Lincoln, too?"

"I'll do it!" Leni volunteered.

She approached her older sister and took their little brother with her over to the couch alongside Luna, Luan and Lynn.

"Okay, just want to make this quick…" Lori began saying right as she stood in the middle of the living room, "Like Mom and Dad said, I'm in charge and whatever I say, you go along with it. I do want this to hopefully be a fun weekend for all of us, but I also will not tolerate excessive misbehaving from any of you and I will not hesitate in setting you straight. Got it?"

For the most part, her siblings were surprised by the demeanor Lori spoke in. It wasn't that uncommon for them to hear her reference that her role as the oldest sister was more than being simply there for them. But it was the level of sternness she evoked in her statement that came off as different this time around.

"Goddit?" Lincoln imitatively said to his sisters on the couch with him.

Lori couldn't help but chuckle, "I appreciate the sentiment, Lincoln, but that was every bit as much directed at you as it was to them. You're literally not going to be earning any brownie points from me because of that."

"Ooh, brownies?" Leni curiously inquired.

"Uh, no, Leni. 'Brownie points' is an expression meaning like that you're trying to earn approval or favorable or preferable treatment from others. It has nothing to do with actual brownies." Lori clarified, "Now anyway, I didn't get an answer from my previous statement, so to repeat, I'm in charge and you'll do what I say. Got it?"

"Got it." Her sisters answered.

"Goddit." Lincoln also answered in classic broken toddler English style.

"Good…" Lori said while grinning, "Well, with that said, I suppose you guys can do whatever you'd like for now, just as long as I know where you are."

"Yay! I wanna play ball. Can someone play with me?" Lynn asked.

"I play!" Lincoln happily offered to do.

"Uh-uh, no, Lincoln." Lynn declined, shaking her head, "You're too small and could never compete with me."

Lori rolled her eyes, "Yeah, because you're such an authority on size yourself, Lynn. Yes, you're certainly taller and bigger than he is at the moment, but you're hardly some mountain of a girl yourself."

"Oh yeah?" Lynn tauntingly said, "What about this?"

She stood up on the couch and exaggeratedly flexed and stretched what little physique she had at a still very young age. Getting more into sports and similar interests in recent memory had gotten Lynn into a more boastful personality and her current antics elicited mixed reactions ranging from more rolling of the eyes from Lori to a mild bit of laughter from the other sisters.

"You know, I guess I can play with you, Lynn." Leni offered.

"Really? Thanks, Leni!" Lynn said delighted.

The excitable youngest sister hopped off the couch and pulled Leni along by the hand out to the front yard. At the same time, Lincoln looked at little sad, feeling dejected over Lynn dismissing his offer in joining in and mocking his size. Not exactly something that could be blamed on a toddler, as of course they're going to be little, but still didn't make it any less hurtful.

"Nobody play?" He lamented.

"Aw, don't be sad, Lincoln. I can play with you now. Let's go to my room and I can play a pair of my new instruments like my flute." Luna said.

"Ooh, I want to come, too! It ought to be a _breeze_!" Luan added followed by her laughing.

But much to her confusion, nobody seemed to get that she was trying to make a joke.

"Get it? Because you blow into a flute, and it's like...the wind? Get it?"

"Uh...sure, whatever." Luna responded, "But anyway, sure, you can come with me and Lincoln."

Agreeing in having both of her younger siblings join her, Luna lead the way upstairs, pausing for a second to carry Lincoln up with her, because again, stairs were still a menace he'd yet to conquer. Though he has tried climbing up stairs before, it was something of a hassle still and the whole climbing down part was again a no-go for now, so having big sisters help carry him until he worked the ability and confidence to do it himself was a plus.

With each of her siblings now busy with their own endeavors, Lori had a smirk on her face.

"Well now...maybe this literally won't be as hard as I thought it would be. I knew that I got this." She said to herself confidently.

Heading upstairs herself, she went to her room and flopped on her bed, reaching over and flipping open her cellphone to pass the time on by. In the duration, she could hear some sounds coming from Luna's room as she played her flute, plus Luan cheering and Lincoln doing some still babyish sounding laughter.

But Lori would then catching something from the corner of her eye a little bit later by looking over toward the window. She was able to see that the skies were getting darker and cloudier. It had already been a cloudy, overcast day since the beginning of the afternoon, but these clouds now featured a darker, grayer shade than before. Now that she thought about it, Lori did recall earlier in the morning seeing a weather forecast calling for rain later in the day and if she had a hutch, that appears to be imminent.

Wanting to err on the side of caution, Lori figured it would perhaps be a good idea to have Leni and Lynn come back inside should it indeed start raining any second now. She went back downstairs and opened the front door, where she saw Lynn tossing around a red rubber ball and Leni trying her best to keep up.

"Hey, you guys, I think that it's best you come back inside now! I get the feeling it's going to rain literally any second now!" Lori called out to them.

"Yeah right!" Lynn dismissed.

But the cocky attitude apparently was proven foolhardy when small, very light droplets of rain did indeed start to fall.

"AAH!" Leni screamed lightly, "I don't wanna get my clothes wet!"

She promptly dashed past Lori and right back inside the house. However, Lynn on the other hand still played around with her ball, not letting what at least ostensibly seems to only be a light rain shower deter her.

"Lynn, come inside!" Lori shouted.

"Why? It's only a little shower!" Lynn argued.

"Maybe right now it is, but you never know when it might get heavier, so you should come back in!"

"So what? Only a wuss would be afraid of a little rain!"

"Lynn, I'm serious! Get in here or I'll...oh, forget it, I may as well do this myself."

Leaving no other chances, Lori felt like she had no other choice but to personally bring Lynn inside herself. But getting to her youngest sister would itself be a challenge as she felt the need to make this into a game by running off and initiating a chase.

"Oh, come on, Lynn, I'm not in the mood for this!" Lori said after growling in frustration.

"Ha ha, you can't catch me!" Lynn taunted at her oldest sister.

However, it wasn't long after that taunting in which she suddenly found herself scooped up by Lori after nearly tripping and being caught before falling.

"Uh, looks like I just did." Lori said in a smarmy manner.

Hauling Lynn in her arms as her little sister still clutched onto her ball, Lori carried her back inside the house and shut the door. Not even a couple of seconds later, the rain had turned from a light shower to a rather sudden heavy downpour.

"See, told you it would get heavier." Lori said.

"Pfft...whatever." Lynn pouted.

Meanwhile back upstairs, the heavy pouring of the rain caught the attention of Luna, Luan and Lincoln.

"Whoa, it's like the outside is getting a _shower_ , isn't it? Get it?" Luan joked around.

Though Luan might've amused herself with her still early and developing sense of humor, Lincoln felt more intimidated by the powerful pattering sounds the rain was making as it was landing on the house. He whimpered fearfully and sought comfort by toddling closer to his third oldest sister.

"Aw, don't be scared, Lincoln." Luna assured him, pulling him into a hug, "The rain won't hurt you."

For the moment on top of that, she also sat down on the floor and brought her little brother onto her lap, while Luan joined by their side and they all looked out the window. It was as if Luna and Luan were trying to show Lincoln that the rain right now might sound scary, but it is otherwise harmless.

* * *

Some time later, the rainfall ceased and peeks of sunshine came down from the sky. Since the beginning of the rain, and with the exception of having to haul in her unwilling youngest sister back inside, Lori kept a pretty lax tab on her siblings, as things were pretty quiet since then.

Though the serenity was nice, she thought about at least seeing what they might be up to at this moment. Putting aside her phone that she was again amusing herself with, Lori left her room and checked the individual rooms of Leni and Luna, but didn't find them or anyone else inside, and that was also the case when she checked the bedroom that was still shared between Luan, Lynn and Lincoln.

"Huh, where is everyone?" Lori wondered.

Her obvious next step was to go downstairs and look around there. When she arrived at the ground floor, again, nobody was immediately in sight, at least not in the living room. Finally though, a cursory glance in the kitchen made Lori at least discover Leni, Luna and Luan there. What raised her curiosity was that the three of them were looking through the window of the back door.

"Uh, what are you guys doing?" Lori asked them upon her arrival.

"Just looking at Lynn and Lincoln playing outside." Leni answered.

"Huh, wait, what now?"

Lori pushed her way through her sisters and took a look herself. She could see Lynn and Lincoln playing around in a puddle of mud that had formed likely from the rain that fell moments earlier. Or to be more specific, they were playing separately where Lynn was jumping up and down in the puddle while Lincoln was sitting down splashing his hands into it.

"So, hold on, all of you are just literally letting them do this without supervision? Seriously?" Lori questioned them just on the touch of the irritable side.

"Well, Luan was outside for a little bit with them and she helped Lincoln get down the steps out there, and me and Leni watched them until Luan came back inside so she didn't get all muddy herself." Luna explained.

"Yeah, I didn't want to get into a _sticky_ situation." Luan added and followed up with a laugh.

Lori groaned, "Okay, for one, I don't think it was such a good idea to let then out after it had been raining in the first place. Next, even if they begged or pleaded to go out, at least one of you should've stayed with them so that they don't cause too much trouble. Finally, you still really need to work on your jokes, Luan."

"Hey, I can't help it! I'm still in the early stages of my craft!" Luan said.

"Whatever. Anyway, we really need to get those two back inside...and it looks like we have no other choice than to give them baths, too, which is going to be a whole lot of fun…" Lori said full with sarcasm.

"Oh, I love helping out with baths! But you don't sound too happy about it, Lori." Leni noted.

"Yeah...the sarcasm literally went over your head didn't it, Leni?" Lori said, then felt the need to add to that, "And no, that's just another expression. Nothing's actually going over your head."

Nonetheless, Lori ventured out to the backyard with her three sisters following behind as they got closer to the muddy mess that encompassed their two youngest siblings.

"Uh, what's going on here?" Lori inquired, arms folded.

"Just having fun, Lori. What's your big deal?" Lynn asked so innocently.

"Oh, my big deal is how you and Lincoln are literally making messes of yourselves, which shouldn't be happening in the first place." Lori sternly replied.

"Aw, quit being a Miss No Fun, Lori. Maybe if I made you join in…" Lynn mischievously suggested.

"Don't you even _think_ about that, Lynn!" Lori warned her, "But that aside, because of how messy you two are, you have no choice now but to be given baths."

Though Lynn reacted to that announcement by pouting, there was a decidedly more fearful reaction coming from the sole boy of the family.

"No! No baff!"

"Huh, gee, I wonder where he got that one from?" Lori questioned sarcastically, shifting her gaze back over to her youngest sister.

Lynn proudly put her hands on her hips, "He learns from the best!"

Lori rolled her eyes, returning her focus back to her little brother, "Now, Lincoln, you wouldn't need a bath if you didn't choose to follow along with, uh...let's just call it the misguided choices of your big sister here."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Lynn said perturbed.

"Figure it out…" Lori simply said, "Anyway, I'm sorry, but you do need a bath, Lincoln, as do you, Lynn."

"No baff!" Lincoln yelled.

"Lincoln…"

Not allowing his oldest sister to have another word in edgewise, Lincoln wobbled up to his feet and started toddling away.

"No baff! No baff! No baff!" He kept on saying.

"Oh boy...can one of you get him?" Lori requested, sighing and looking to Leni, Luna and Luan.

"I got him, Lori!" Lynn suddenly said.

She made a run after her brother, cutting a path around him before tackling Lincoln to the ground. He tried to struggle free, but Lynn held him down tightly, which in turn caused him to start screaming and crying hysterically.

"Okay, okay, I think you've made your point, Lynn!" Lori implored to her.

Running over to them, she pulled Lynn off Lincoln and ushered her over to their other sisters, giving Lori all her attention to her little brother who was still thrashing around in tears.

"Lincoln, it's okay, she's not on you anymore!" She said.

Lori pulled Lincoln back up to his feet by his hands, then she picked him up and kept him at an arms length as to mitigate getting much of his muddied messy self on her. Even still, he kept on crying and wriggling about.

"Lincoln, settle down already!"

"No baff!"

"There's no...getting around it...you're..getting one!" Lori emphasized, struggling to maintain her grip with him putting up such a fuss.

Tightening her hold without trying to hurt him, she carried Lincoln with her, but not before giving further instruction to her sisters.

"Leni, mind carrying Lynn back inside as well just so that she doesn't try tracking in all sorts of a mess inside?" Lori requested.

"Oh, uh, sure, I guess." Leni replied, "Come here, Lynn…"

Luckily for Leni, Lynn didn't put up any sort of struggle, although she maintained her pouted expression nevertheless. Like Lori was doing with Lincoln, Leni carried her youngest sister also at an arms length.

"Hey, can we do anything to help?" Luan asked.

"Uh...sure, you and Luna can at least grab some fresh clothes for both of them, and probably a diaper as well in Lincoln's case." Lori answered, "Aside from that, Leni and I can handle everything else from there."

"Okay, we can do that." Luna affirmed.

Everyone now having their roles in this situation, they all went back into the house, where Luna and Luan went upstairs to the room the latter shared with Lynn and Lincoln to get the clothes and diaper. Meanwhile, Lori and Leni brought Lynn and Lincoln into the bathroom, the latter still carrying on some.

"Okay, here you go." Luna said upon her and Luan getting everything and bringing them over.

"All right, thanks. You can just set them on top of the toilet there." Lori instructed, "Again, Leni and I will handle the rest, so you two can go do whatever else you want, okay?"

Both Luna and Luan nodded, put the clothes and diaper on the toilet and were off to attend whatever business they had in mind next as their older sisters readied themselves for the bathing task ahead of them.

"So we're giving them a bath at the same time, right?" Leni asked.

"Yeah, that's what I had in mind. Obviously better to do that than to do it separately with knows could possibly happen between then." Lori responded.

Unfortunately, she didn't need to wait long at all for something else to come in the way. She caught a foul whiff and it didn't take any real deducing to the origin of the odor.

"Oh jeez...well, you just keep giving reasons why you need to get a bath, Lincoln." Lori said, scrunching up her face.

Leni gasped and covered up her face, "Oh dear, did Linky…?"

Lori groaned, "Yes, he did. Well...get the bathtub filled up and get a head start with Lynn while I take care of this."

Quickly setting Lincoln down for a few seconds, Lori got his clothes off until he was only in his diaper, then she carried him over to his room to remove the offending diaper.

"You know, Lincoln, sooner rather than later you're going to need to be weaned off of diapers and learn when literally properly to do your business. Lynn was pretty well potty trained by your age. Heck, she even managed to go when through some quick thinking of mine I took her into the restroom at the hospital the day you were born. That should tell you something, so I'm not sure why it's still a bit of struggle for you."

"Struggle" was also a very apt term for Lori having to deal with this, too. Lincoln squirmed around while she removed the diaper, threw it away and wiped him down. To keep him in place, she resorted in having to grab onto his wrists gently enough to at least prevent his arms from flailing around.

It took a good couple of minutes, but Lori finished the job and now carried her still struggling baby brother back over to the bathroom.

"No baff!" He strained out.

Lori simply chose to ignore his last minute plea, dipping him into the bath right alongside Lynn, who was surprisingly well behaved and wasn't rigorously splashing around or anything of the sort.

"All right, since you love doing this, I'm going to let you take the lead here, Leni, and I'll do whatever else I can to help out. You must be doing something right if Lynn hasn't been causing too much trouble so far." Lori told her.

"Okay!" Leni happily accepted.

As Lori went to wash her hands from the diaper removal, Leni went to work in bathing her two youngest siblings. Surprisingly enough, just like Lynn has been the past couple of minutes and despite all his fussing, Lincoln had also become tranquil throughout the bath. Either he reluctantly resigned to the fact his acts of carrying on clearly did not dissuade or change the mind of Lori, so he just had to deal with it no matter how he felt, that it was all simply a case of random toddler outburst with no rhyme or reason behind it, or there was indeed something to Lori's theory about Leni being something of a calming presence during bath time. Like how the eldest sibling inferred to minutes before, Leni had always loved helping out in giving baths to her younger siblings as far as she's had the ability to do so, and given how well she was handling things now, Lori sort of wondered why she was even hear at all. Then again, she could stand to assist drying off and dressing up either Lynn and Lincoln.

"All done!" Leni declared.

Sure enough, bath time came to an end and with remarkably little mess or fussing about.

"Wow, Leni, you literally have a knack for this!" Lori said, thoroughly impressed.

"Huh?" Leni asked with a curious tilt of the head.

"I mean you've done such a good job giving them baths." Lori cleared up.

"Oh...then thanks, Lori!" Leni said.

With the actual bathing portion of things over with, next came drying and dressing up. Leni unplugged the drain, picked Lincoln up and out, indicating to Lori she'll do the same for Lynn. They individually dried off the respective younger sibling in which they had control over before getting them dressed. However, Lynn had other ideas.

"Hey, I can dress myself!" She said definitively.

As soon as she could feel Lori wrapping up drying her off, Lynn immediately sifted through and collected her clothes, then went to work putting them on. She did manage to successfully get her underwear, shorts, and socks on, but like with most kids her age, shirts were still something of an issue. She struggled around until Lori assisted in putting her arms through the sleeves and same went with getting her head through the hole.

"I can do it myself, Lori!" Lynn again said.

"Yeah, I bet you would, Lynn...eventually...maybe...at some point." Lori teased.

Meanwhile, Leni had gotten all of Lincoln's clothes plus the diaper on without much hassle.

"There you go, Linky!" She said, giving his little nose a boop for added effect.

Lincoln giggled, but his happiness was short lived as Lori gently had him face her and did the same for Lynn, too.

"Okay, you two are going to stay inside for the rest of the day. We do not need a repeat of all that's went on, got it?" Lori informed them austerely.

"Whatever…" Lynn responded halfheartedly.

"Lynn…"

"Okay, got it!"

"Good. Lincoln?"

Lincoln looked on regretfully, "Goddit…"

"All right, good…" Lori said, sighing as she faced Leni, "And I don't want you, Luna or Luan to leave them unsupervised again like you did that lead them to get all muddy in the first place. Be sure to tell them that, okay?"

"Yes, Lori…" Leni said softly.

"Right then. Well, I'll let you the three of you go now."

With their oldest sister's lecture over, Leni lead Lynn and Lincoln with her downstairs while Lori returned to her room to give herself a break, as well as talking to herself about the day so far.

"Well...not quite literally smooth sailing, but not a total disaster yet, either. I can still handle this and I'm not afraid to get tougher…"

* * *

The evening was casting itself down and thankfully no other incidents, induced by the two youngest siblings or otherwise, had came about since a mud bath lead to an actual proper bath for those two. With the changeover to nighttime fast approaching came with it dinnertime as well, or at least whatever could be considered such.

That was an aspect of this who situation of Lori being in charge during the weekend that needed advanced working out. She was hardly anything of a cook at her age, unless knowing her way around the microwave and occasionally scrambling eggs or frying up bacon constituted knowledge of food preparation. But luckily her parents thought that out and the microwave did serve of the impetus for tonight's meal. The night before, the family had an exceptionally large batch of macaroni and cheese made with the forethought of having what's left over for tonight. Regarding plans for the following night, the kids had been left with some money so that they could order some pizza.

That was for tomorrow and for tonight, Lori had to engage in what little rudimentary cookery skills she had in her. She had gotten out the big bowl of leftover mac and cheese and placed it to be heated in the microwave for several minutes. In the meantime, she set the dining room table with plates, glasses of water, a sippy cup for Lincoln and the sets of silverware.

Right as she wrapped up with setting the table, in came Leni, Luna and Luan who were then greeted by a glare by their eldest sister.

"Well, thank you very much for your lack of help, you guys." Lori said to them brusquely.

"Huh? Why are you sounding mad, Lori?" Luan asked.

"I mean, I would've appreciated some help with at the very least with setting the table which I had to do all by myself." Lori responded with a frustrated sigh.

"Uh, you could have asked us for help." Luna said pointedly.

"Don't get smart with me, Luna. Maybe what I was expecting you to do was help regardless. All part of being responsible and pulling your own weight around here while Mom and Dad are gone. I might be in charge, but that doesn't mean I have to do everything by myself in that time. In fact…"

But before Lori could continue, she only just now realized that just three of her siblings were present and conspicuous by their absence were the two youngest of the bunch.

"Wait, where are Lynn and Lincoln? Have you left them unsupervised again?! Leni, didn't I literally tell you after we gave them their bath to tell Luna and Luan that you three need to not do that anymore?!"

"Wait, you did?" Leni wondered, then it soon came back to her, "Oh...you did. I'm sorry, Lori, I totally forgot!"

"Why am I unfortunately not surprised by that?" Lori expressed, shaking her head, "But really, where are they?"

"Up in my room." Luan replied, pointing upward.

"Doing what exactly? They better not…"

Just then, the microwave started beeping to indicated the cooking time had elapsed.

"Okay, forget it, just bring them down here." Lori instructed.

Leni put her hands on both of her sisters' shoulders, "It's okay, I'll get them myself."

Luna and Luan stood by while their older sister went back upstairs to collect Lynn and Lincoln for dinnertime. When she peeked inside their room, Leni saw them playing separately, with Lynn dribbling a little basketball and Lincoln sitting on the floor playing with blocks. It was perfectly innocent scene that almost made Lori's insistence they be watched over at all times appear somewhat groundless.

"Hey, Lynn, Linky, dinner's ready!" Leni told them.

"All right!" Lynn said excitedly.

She bounded right past her big sister and down the stairs. As for Lincoln, of course knowing he still needs assistance in being brought down, Leni picked him up.

"Come on, Linky!" She said.

Lincoln giggled and off he was with Leni for what will hopefully be a yummy course of mac and cheese through the convenience leftovers and reheating.

Upon arriving at the dining room, Leni helped Lincoln get situated on the little booster seat put on one of the chairs. Typically when eating dinner he was sat at a kiddie table with Lynn close by the regular table. But little by little in recent days, both were graduating up on to join with the rest of their family on the dining table, though obviously Lincoln's smaller stature necessitated the booster seat.

With everyone else settled in, Lori arrived with the bowl at hand. Seeing the stuff and wonderfully cheesy aroma that it brought along made Lynn and Lincoln in particular fidget around in their seats and reach out for it.

"Hey, hey, hey, settle down, you two. Wait until you get served." She said.

She went around to the side of each of her siblings and served up an appropriate amount on each plate. In Lincoln's case, he got a much smaller portion that'd be just enough to fill up that little stomach of his. Finally, Lori served herself, took her seat and that was enough of a signal to her siblings that dinner could in fact commence.

For the most part, things went along pretty smoothly. However at one point, Lynn chowed down with extra vigor, again showing her big appetite for a girl of her age. This caught the attention of Lincoln and being the inquisitive and impressionable little boy he is, he began imitating his sister's fast pace of eating.

But that turned out to be a terrible idea on his part. Suddenly, he started making little gagging noises.

"Lincoln?!" Lori said worriedly.

Not giving it another thought, she bolted right out of her chair and hurriedly lifted him out of his chair, squeezing his stomach. Luckily for him, it only took just a pair of squeezes to have Lincoln cough up the trio of noodles which had apparently gotten caught in his throat right onto the center of the table.

Then, be it because of the ordeal of choking, perhaps getting inadvertently hurt by Lori or both, Lincoln began crying, making his oldest sister turn him around in her direction and held him close.

"Hey, it's okay, Lincoln, it's okay…" Lori soothed to him.

As she held on to him, she turned to Lynn with a disapproving look.

"Lynn, you shouldn't have been eating so fast and encouraged him to do the same."

"What? How is it my fault?" Lynn fired back petulantly.

"I'm not trying to say that, Lynn, but you do know he sometimes likes to imitate us and you should at the very least be much more careful in what you do around him." Lori explained.

Next, Lori got a couple sheets of paper towels from the kitchen, using them to both wipe Lincoln's mouth down of the saliva that dribbled and then to clean up the spat out macaroni noodles so she could throw them away in the trash. Having done that, she brought him back over to his seat.

"Here, take a little bit of a drink, Lincoln. That'll probably help some."

She handed his sippy cup over and he did drink a modest amount. Then, she looked over to Leni, who was sitting to his right.

"Hey, Leni, make sure he chews his food all the way before swallowing, okay?"

"Sure, Lori." Leni answered.

Lori let out a sigh and returned over to her seat so she too could finish up eating.

In the span of a few more minutes, everyone had finished up and it was at that point Lori spoke of some additional instructions.

"All right, Luan, I want you to take Lynn and Lincoln maybe on over to the living room so you can watch TV or whatever, just as long as you can keep an eye on them. While that's going on, Leni and Luna, I'll be needing your help with clearing up and then cleaning up the dishes."

"There, see? That's what you should've done before with setting up the table." Luna said.

Lori narrowed her eyes in her sister's direction, "Luna, what did I say about getting smart with me?"

"Fine...sorry." Luna conceded reluctantly.

"Well, you've _dished_ out your orders, so we might as well go along with them!" Luan said along with some laughter.

Lori rolled her eyes, but nevertheless she plus Leni and Luna got to work clearing the table while Luan had Lynn and Lincoln follow her over to the living room.

In the kitchen a couple of minute later, the three oldest sisters were all gathered around the sink, where Lori and Leni did the work of washing the dishes while Luna dried them off and put them on the dish rack.

"That was so scary what happened to Linky earlier…" Leni brought up.

"Yeah, you won't get much argument out of me from that." Lori said, nervously chuckling.

"Me neither. But it was pretty cool how quick you got to Linc to help him out, though." Luna said.

"Heh...thanks, Luna. Obviously I had to do literally everything in my power to help him. I might've hurt him in process, which probably explains why he cried so much and…"

But as Lori was speaking, she and her sisters could hear what sounded like some sort of commotion going on in the living room.

"Oh great, what now?" Lori grumbled and sighed, "Guys, stay here and finish up with the dishes, because I may as well see what's going on."

Drying off her hands first, she then ran over to the living room to see what the fuss was all about. She grumbled again and shook her head as she witnessed the petty sight that was her three youngest siblings tussling and tugging over possession of the TV remote. There was something of a bizarrely funny aspect of Lincoln taking part in this given he likely still doesn't know how to properly use the remote aside from randomly pressing the buttons for its own sake, but that didn't change the gravity of how dumb and unneeded this scene was.

"Hey, stop it, you guys!" Lori shouted, snatching the remote from her siblings' hands.

"Hey!" Luan and Lynn said in tandem annoyed.

"Don't you 'hey' me! I mean, seriously, fighting over the remote? And dragging Lincoln into it?" Lori said crossly.

"He chose to get involved!" Luan argued.

"I don't care! You and Lynn should be civil enough to not be doing this in the first place and to admonish Lincoln in imitating such behavior!" Lori countered.

With the remote at hand, she flipped around until coming across some random kids' show and place it down back on the coffee table.

"There, maybe you can watch this. But if I hear you fighting over the remote again, then no TV for the rest of the night!" Lori warned, "Got it?"

"Got it…" Luan and Lynn said quietly.

"Goddit…" Lincoln added.

Sighing once more, Lori would try in returning to the kitchen, but a hair-raising clattering sound made her stop in her tracks and startled Luan, Lynn and Lincoln.

"Great, as if enough hasn't happened today…" Lori said completely vexed, looking back over to her youngest siblings, "Stay there, don't fight over the remote and I'll check things out."

She resumed going back to the kitchen to investigate the clattering. At least based on what she could see, a whole mess of utensils were scattered about on the floor.

"Okay...what happened?" Lori asked, all but sounding flat in her tone.

"I'm sorry, Lori. I was trying to put a plate away and it knocked underneath the thing in dish rack that keeps the forks, knives, spoons and all that stuff in and then they fell on the floor." Luna answered, rubbing the back of her neck.

Lori sighed partly in relief, "Well...at least it wasn't something more serious. It's fine, Luna."

"Yeah, and hey, I'll help put them back…" Leni was in the middle saying.

However, since she was wearing a pair of soapy rubber gloves when washing the dishes, they dribbled down some water on the floor and Leni unwittingly slipped and fell down, almost landing face first on a fork that was inches away.

"You okay, Leni?" Luna asked, coming down to her side.

"Yeah, I think so…" Leni replied.

Both Lori and Luna helped their sister back up to her feet.

"You know what...you guys can go over and join with Luan, Lynn and Lincoln in the living room. I can handle this for here…" Lori said to them, "Besides, I think you'll be more useful now in keeping those three in line instead."

"Oh, um...okay, if you say so, Lori." Leni said.

"Hey, what were they doing anyway?" Luna asked.

Lori sighed again, "Oh, you know, fighting over the remote. Now seriously, go over with them and I'll take care of things here."

Despite the confusion of it all, Leni and Luna complied with her request and headed for the living room, sitting down on the couch with the rest of their siblings.

"Is everything okay?" Luan asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about, Luan. We had a little accident in the kitchen. Nothing to make a big deal over." Luna assured her.

In any event, the five of them settled in on watching whatever show had been presently selected by Lori as the latter wiped down the floor of the soap and water, then washed and rinsed the utensils which had fallen.

"What are we watching anyway?" Leni asked.

Lynn shrugged, "Dunno. Lori is making us watch this."

"Yeah, she said if we fought over the remote again, we can't watch any TV for the rest of the night." Luan added.

"Really?" Luna wondered, "In fact, haven't you all noticed Lori has been more mean recently?"

"Yeah, why is that? She's never been like this before." Leni said.

A further discussion seemed primed of the subject, but that went on the wayside as Luna reached for the TV remote.

"Wait, what are you doing, Luna?" Lynn asked.

"This show's boring, so I'm gonna change it to something else." Luna answered.

"But Lori said we had to watch this!" Luan pointed out.

"Yeah, she said _you_ had to watch it. She said nothing about me or Leni, so what's the harm?" Luna countered.

She got her hands on the remote and almost was about to change the channel. However, she would not expect to see Lincoln trying to take it away from her.

"Lincoln, what's the deal?"

"No!"

He tugged the remote away from her, but she tried taking it back. Soon, Lynn joined the fray again, as did Luan as well, for another remote tussle, albeit this time only to prevent Luna from switching channels. At the same time, Leni attempted to get in between everyone to stop the squabble.

"Guys, don't do this! Lori's gonna hear us and she'll be very mad at us if she does!" She said.

"You better believe that!"

Suddenly, everyone stopped in their places as their older sister stood there and if the scowl on her face meant anything, she was clearly not in a good mood at all.

"You've got to be kidding me! What did I say before?" Lori said aggravatingly.

"But Luna started it this time, Lori!" Luan said, pointing the accusatory finger at said sister.

"Oh, come on! I wanted to watch something different!" Luna argued in her defense, "You didn't say anything about me having to watch this, Lori!"

"Yeah, but I also said that you and Leni were to prevent them from fighting over possession of the remote! If Luan is indeed telling the truth, though, you starting another one is ridiculous and a total failure of you and Leni keeping an eye on her plus Lynn and Lincoln!" Lori stated through increased incensed ire.

She forcefully took the remote out of Luna's hands, shut off the TV and practically slammed both the remote and her hand on the table.

"In addition to no more TV, I'm ordering all of you to go your rooms and stay there for the rest of the night until bedtime!"

"What?! What makes you think you can do that?" Luna contended.

"Oh, gee, good question, Luna. Let me mull that one over for a second…" Lori replied sarcastically, prodding her cheek before snapping her fingers, "Oh, that's right, because Mom and Dad put me in charge and said anything I say goes!"

"But do you have to be so mean about it?" Luan asked.

"If that's what I have to do so that I can keep you all in line, then yeah, I'll do whatever it takes for that to happen!" Lori said, "Now do I as I say and go upstairs to your rooms! _Now_!"

Perhaps purely so that they don't have to face any more of their oldest sister's fury, her siblings complied and headed upstairs. Along the way, Luna, Luan and Lynn each gave Lori a contemptible glare, while Leni with Lincoln in her arms only looked more worried than anything.

With everyone else out of the way, Lori sighed and took a seat on the couch, only to then smirk and chuckle seconds later.

"Oh, I am _so_ nailing this! Now I have the ground floor literally to myself! What shall I do now? After all, I literally deserve a break with all that's happened today."

So proud of her efforts Lori was, she raised one hand up and used the other to give herself a high five. She then would indulge in the time to herself until she too would eventually go to bed, ready to tackle whatever else came her way tomorrow.

* * *

The next day, Lori kept up her newly found bossy ways in a myriad of methods and manners. She was actually really enjoying in throwing around her parental granted authority at her siblings. Naturally, they weren't big fans of it, especially Luna, Luan and Lynn, while Leni was more fearful about raising any objections and Lincoln was simply too young to formulate much of a coherent response in any case.

But very soon, an incident would occur that changed everything for all involved.

In the later afternoon hours, Lynn defiantly played around with a ball in the living room while Luna also in the room. The latter was meant to keep on eye on the former, but was taking a rather lax approach to the matter due to feeling increasingly aloof about Lori's constant demands that Lynn or Lincoln for that matter to have someone looking out for them at all times.

At one point, right as Lori just so happened to be arriving, Lynn kicked her ball and it got sent flying over in Lori's direction, colliding with her head and knocking her down, plus having her glasses knocked off, too.

"Ow!" She shouted, "Lynn, watch it!"

She sat up and fumbled around for her glasses. However, she could just about barely see that Lynn snatched them up into her hands.

"Lynn, give them here!" Lori demanded.

"Oh, you need them?" Lynn asked wickedly.

"Yes, I do! I literally can't see with out them!"

"Then you're gonna have to catch me first!"

And with that, Lynn raced off around the living room, leaving an absolutely irate big sister in her wake.

"Lynn, I do not have the time or patience for this!" Lori yelled.

Nevertheless, she had no other real choice right now than to catch Lynn, blurred vision and all. The whole commotion of it all attached the arrivals of Leni, Luan and Lincoln at the scene.

"What's going on?" Leni asked.

Lori did not provide an answer, only having the single-minded goal of catching her youngest sister and planning who knows what for her, all while again Luna had really nothing more than a lackadaisical attitude to it all. In anything else, she sort of got a kick out of Lori having gone from being a bossy big sister to pathetically flailing and stumbling around in her efforts to get at Lynn and retrieve her glasses.

Finally, by the sheer luck of Lynn tripping and falling very similarly to how she did when evading her oldest sister the day before, Lori caught her and was so forceful in yanking her glasses back that she fell back over again.

"Ow, damn it!"

Luan gasped, "You said a bad word!"

"Oh, like that's really the worst aspect of all that's just happened, Luan…" Lori grumbled as she sat up.

"Well, I'd say you had it coming for how you've been to us, so…" Luna snottily said.

"Oh, shut the hell up, Luna!" Lori retorted.

Leni gasped and covered up Lincoln's ear, "Lori, stop saying that sort of stuff to them, especially with Linky around!"

"Hey, they're all going to learn those words at some point in their lives, so why not now?" Lori contended contemptuously.

She finally put her glasses back on and the second she did, she directed her attention to Lynn, grabbing and pulling her up by collar of her shirt.

"Lynn, you've literally been an absolute menace! What to you have to say for yourself?!" Lori furiously demanded.

Instead of words, all Lynn did was blow a raspberry.

"Oh, that's how it is, huh?"

Still holding on to her shirt collar, Lori smacked Lynn straight across her face, knocking her to the ground and stunning her siblings who watched.

In particular, Lincoln did not like seeing that at all. So angry the little toddler boy had suddenly become, he toddled up to Lori and started pounding his fists on her legs, only adding to the rage she was already in.

"No! No! No!" He said over and over.

"Lincoln, stop that or I'll…"

His pounding transformed into actual punching and that sealed it for Lori. Toddler or not, she swung around and struck him very much like she just did to Lynn. He fell down to his side and immediately he began crying very loudly.

And just like that, all the anger dissipated within Lori. The fact she let her anger get the better of her and to cause bodily harm to her two youngest siblings filled her with immense regret.

She wanted to go be by their sides, but was beaten to the punch by a pair of her sisters as Luna went to Lincoln and Luan did the same for Lynn. If that wasn't enough, Leni, who largely prevented herself from intervening or going against Lori's rule, now was right up in her sister's face with an angered expression of her own.

"Lori, what were you thinking?!" She said.

"I...I...I…" Lori stammered.

At a loss for words, she sighed hard and simply chose to turn around and start leaving.

"Hey, where are you going?" Leni asked.

"To my room! Don't bother me!" Lori replied, almost in a strained voice.

She stomped up the stairs and slammed the door to her room.

Meanwhile, seemingly being put in charge of the situation due to Lori's departure, Leni put aside how she felt about what her sister had done and wanted to instead check the conditions of Lynn and Lincoln.

Given he was crying and thus demanded to the most immediate attention, Leni went right over to Lincoln first. She knelt down next to him and checked his face. There was a little bit of swelling on his cheek, but aside from that, he didn't appear to be that badly hurt. The same likely couldn't be said about how hurt he was on the inside on the other hand.

"Hey, I'm gonna take Linky with me for a moment. You check on Lynn, okay?" Leni told her sisters.

As Leni carried her crying little brother with her, Luna joined over with Luan in seeing how Lynn was holding up. Like with Lincoln, she also had some swelling on her cheek and luckily nothing more, and though not in hysterics like he was, Lynn did also have tears coming down her eyes.

"I'm a bad girl…" She lamented softly.

She sniffled some, causing both Luna and Luan to come closer and give her a little group hug.

In the meantime, Leni brought Lincoln over to the dining room and sat him down on the table. She gave his face another look just to be absolutely sure he wasn't hurt any worse.

"Aw, it's gonna be okay, Linky…" Leni assured him sweetly.

To give him some sort of comfort for his cheek, she kissed it gently.

"Lori no wuv me…" He babbled.

It was a series of words that made Leni's heart sink. She knew there's no way that was true given how much Lori has done for him so far in the two short years he's been in their lives. But it was apparent being hit by her seemed to damage that notion quite a bit at least for now.

Though she didn't like what her sister did at all and despite confronting her, Leni had difficulty truly holding Lori in contempt for what happened. This bossy and aggressive side just simply wasn't who she normally was or has been prior to now. There had to be some reason as to why this has come to be.

Sighing, Leni carried Lincoln back to the living room and placed him down next to his sisters.

"How's Lynn?" She asked.

"I think she's okay. She doesn't look too hurt or anything like that." Luna replied.

"Well, that's good. Say, can you keep an eye on her and Linky for me? I'm gonna go upstairs and check on Lori." Leni said.

"What? Why?" Luan questioned.

"After all she's done? What's the point?" Luna added more disdainfully.

Leni sighed, "I know what she did was bad, but we know her better than that. She's never been like this before and all I want to do is talk to her and find out why. I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

Though Luna and Luan didn't appear to approve of such a plan, Leni was going through with it regardless. She made her way upstairs and rounded to her left to the door leading to Lori's room, knocking on it.

"Lori?" She inquired.

No response came from the other end, so she knocked again.

"Lori?"

Again, no response, but Leni was not to be deterred. She opened up the door, closed it behind her and witnessed a sad sight.

She saw Lori laying down on her bed facing away, her glasses on the nightstand and her body trembled here and there.

Leni went around to her sister's side and saw her face coated in recently fallen tears, something she found to be very heartrending to discover.

"Leni...please leave me alone…" Lori softly told her.

"Lori, what's wrong?" Leni asked sadly.

"No, please...I don't…"

Whatever Lori tried in saying didn't materialize, as she instead broke down further into tears and sobbed. Not wanting to stand by and see her like this any longer, Leni joined by her sister's side and hugged her tightly. Though Lori didn't think she deserved any sympathy at all for her unconscionable actions, she hugged Leni back nevertheless and cried harder.

The two of them remained this way for a few minutes, with Leni allowing Lori to let everything out before trying to talk things over.

When Lori's sobs did slow down, Leni pulled away and got herself and her sister up into sitting positions.

"Lori, can I ask you something?" Leni inquired.

"I...I...guess…" Lori replied, taking a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down, "What is it?"

"Well...why did you hit Lynn and Linky...and why have you been so mean recently?"

At first, Lori didn't respond right away. She felt awful having to be reminded of what she had done to her youngest siblings, plus she was embarrassed to admit the reason for her choice behavior.

"I don't know why I hit them, Leni. I lost my cool when I shouldn't have. I hated what they both did to me, but that wasn't an excuse to strike them back." Lori said.

"No, it wasn't and I know you'd never try to hurt them, but again, why have you acting so mean?" Leni asked again.

Lori whimpered and brought her knees up to her chest, "You're going to find this be so stupid…"

"No I won't."

"Oh yes you will…"

"No, I won't, Lori! Please tell me! Please…"

"Because just look at me, Leni!"

The hysterical manner Lori spoke in took Leni by surprise.

"What do you mean, Lori!"

Lori tearfully scoffed, "I mean just that, Leni. Look at me!"

She reached over and put her glasses back on.

"Look! What do you see in me? Do I look like the picture of confidence to you?"

"I...don't understand." Leni said very much confused.

Lori sighed, "I mean...ever since I've gotten all this...the glasses, the braces, the acne...I've been dealing with issues of insecurity and lacking in confidence. Why would I feel confident about myself when I look so...undesirable?"

"Don't say that, Lori! You're beautiful and always have been!" Leni emphasized, putting both hands on her sister's shoulders.

"I know you're trying to say that to only make me feel better…" Lori said depressingly.

Leni shook her head, "No, I'm not! You are such a pretty girl and I hate for you to think differently! So please, stop thinking of yourself like that!"

The compassion in her sister's voice was starting to make Lori feel a little bit better. Though some self-doubt remained, she smiled.

"Okay, Leni...I'll try."

Leni smiled back and briefly hugged Lori, who also did the same in return.

"So, what does that have to do with you being as mean as you have been?" Leni once again asked once the hug was broken.

"Well…" Lori began with, taking another deep breath, "It's like I said that I have been feeling insecure lately and I've been needing an excuse to get my confidence back. When I heard Mom and Dad saying they wanted to go on a vacation together again, that's when I told them that they should go on one while I stay here and look after you and our siblings by myself. As you can imagine, they weren't sold on that and believed we needed someone to stay with us. But after a lot of convincing, I managed to changed their minds and here we are now."

She paused for moment, mused over her next thought and went on.

"So really, the main reason for me becoming more bossy than I usually am was among things to try in regaining that confidence and proving to Mom and Dad I can handle being in charge alone for this period of time. But now don't think I've succeeded in either of those goals. I mean, I thought how I conducted myself yesterday was justifiable, but clearly I literally crossed a line by hitting both Lynn and Lincoln."

Lori sighed again, although a small grin did come across her face.

"I think it's best that I go and apologize to them, huh?"

"Yeah, I think so, too." Leni agreed, "Let's go together."

Her grin getting slightly bigger, Lori sat up from her bed and Leni followed along. But there was one other things the latter wanted to say.

"Lori?"

"Hmm?"

"You are a great big sister. I can't think of anyone better than you."

Now having a full blown smile on her face, Lori went up and gave Leni a great big hug.

"Thank you, Leni...and thanks for the talk, too. I really need this." She said gratefully.

Leni returned the hug, "You're welcome, Lori."

After a few more seconds in the hug, they both left Lori's room and headed downstairs. Upon Lori's presence being known though, Luna and Luan shared some unpleasant looks in her direction.

"Guys, Lori has something to say." Leni said to them.

Stepping forward, Lori first approached Lynn, where unlike her petulant attitude recently, she looked a little more fearful.

"Lynn, I'm really sorry for hitting you. There was no reason for it. That doesn't excuse you for what you did on your end, but I never should've reacted the way I did. I'm sorry."

Lynn took in the words of her oldest sister's apology for a few seconds. Luckily, that's all it took for her to smile and run up to hug Lori.

"I'm sorry, too, Lori. I was a bad girl for taking your glasses...and hitting you with my ball." She said.

Lori chuckled and hugged her back, "It's okay, Lynn."

Next, she looked around for her little brother, but noticed he wasn't around.

"Hey, where's Lincoln?"

Just then, what sounded like little whimpering and shivering noises could be heard. Since she was close by, Leni looked over and right behind the couch was Lincoln, all scrunched up and looking scared. She had to assume that maybe he hid behind here when he saw Lori coming down.

"Aw, don't be scared, Linky." Leni said to him reassuringly, "Lori really does feel bad about what she did. Come on, give her a chance."

She picked up her frightened little brother into her arms and brought him around close to Lori. Even being held by Leni, Lincoln teared up in fear.

"Hey….it's okay, Lincoln. Please relax, okay?" Lori said calmly.

She extended her arms out and Leni very gently handed him over. He started crying again and wriggled around in Lori's grasp. However, with some soothing shushing and rubs of his back, he calmed down enough and she held him in a manner so he could look at her.

"Lincoln, I'm so sorry for hitting you as well. As bad as it was for Lynn, it was even worse doing it to you. They're literally no justification for hitting a two year old at all, even if he's hitting his big sister's legs. I'm very, very sorry, little brother."

Lincoln sniffled, "I sowee, too. You wuv me?"

Lori smiled, "Of course I do. I love you, Lincoln."

She hugged him and kissed his cheek, getting a cheerful little laugh from him.

"Oh, that goes for all of you as well. I love all you guys and I'm sorry for anything I've done to you."

Heartened by the words of their elder sister, Leni, Luna, Luan and Lynn all came over and joined in for a group hug along with Lori and Lincoln. It lasted for a good minute or so before breaking off and Lori also placed Lincoln down as well.

"Now, I'll confess that I've been as bossy as I've been because I've dealt with some insecurity and confidence issues because of my looks, but I'm glad that Leni talked with me and made realize the error of some of my ways. Because of that, I think some adjustments are needed. I'm still not going to tolerate particularly bad behavior from any of you, but I will not go completely crazy either should something like that occur. In fact, I've just literally now came up with how I'll describe my approach to this: firm but fair."

"I like that sound of that, actually. And yeah, I think also we all could stand to be better behaved ourselves." Luna admitted.

"Yeah, we'll do that." Luan added.

"Thanks, you guys, and I'll do better on my end." Lori rounded out, "Now, the evening is getting closer and I do remember Mom and Dad leaving some money for us to order pizza. Who's up for that?"

An apropos loud confirmatory cheery from her siblings clearly sealed things. A little later on, Lori used her cellphone to place the order that had been written down and agreed upon with their parents the night before they left. After waiting the average delivery time of twenty to thirty minutes, their pizza arrived and instead of sitting at the dining table, they had a more casual setup of sitting together on the couch while eating and watching TV.

One aspect of dinnertime that wasn't quite as clear was if Lincoln could actually eat any of the pizza himself at his age, but Lori had a solution to that. She took a slice, cut it up into small, toddler-sized pieces and helped feed them to him. Of course, he needed to be reminded to chew each piece all the way and not eat too quickly, but ultimately things did turn out well and Lincoln appeared to enjoy it. All in all, the night was turning out to be a lot better compared to how the afternoon ended.

* * *

As night really settled in, everyone was either now in bed or making preparations for such.

In their room, Luan, Lynn and Lincoln were sleeping soundly in each of their beds, or in Lincoln's case, still in a crib. But like with diapers and potty training, sometime soon he'll move on to a proper bed down the line.

However, their peaceful sleep would be interrupted by a sudden booming presence of thunder. Lynn let out a scream and in a hurry, she hopped out of her bed and into Luan's.

"Luan, can I stay with you? That thunder is scary!" She requested.

"Okay, yeah you can." Luan said more than welcoming.

The younger of the ponytailed sisters snuggled up closer to her older sister and tried to get back to sleep in spite of the thunder. Eventually though, a gushing torrential downpour of rain and combining that with more thunder and also lighting, it caused Lynn to tense up.

"It's okay, Lynn." Luan tried assuring her, "We're safe."

As this was going on, Lincoln saw everything from his crib and he too was terrified of the storm that had reared it's head all of the sudden. He didn't feel comfortable at all in the confines of the crib, so with a little determination and surprising dexterity for a toddler, he managed to climb out and toddled to the side of Luan's bed.

"Lincoln? What are you doing here?" She asked upon seeing him.

He babbled incoherently and reached out with his arms. His still extremely limited vocabulary couldn't quite muster the right words, but it was apparent what he was trying to articulate.

"Oh, do you want to be up here too because you're scared of the storm? Sure, I think we can do that." Luan said.

"Hey, I was here first!" Lynn said annoyed.

"I wanna! I wanna!" Lincoln now tried saying.

"No! Go away!" Lynn demanded.

Undeterred, Lincoln tried his best in climbing onto the bed while Lynn held him back.

"Guys, stop! Don't do this!" Luan pleaded to them.

Alas, her pleas fell on deaf toddler ears. Even with the storm in the background, the kerfuffle between Lynn and Lincoln was loud enough to bring Lori, Leni and Luna into the room to investigate.

"Hey, what's with all the noise?" Lori asked.

"Lynn and Lincoln are scared of the storm and wanted to stay in my bed." Luan explained.

"But I was here first! He can't come up here, too!" Lynn argued.

For another brief moment, their struggle continued, but not if their oldest sister had a say in the matter. This was going to be a test of her new "firm but fair" philosophy when it comes to managing her siblings.

"Okay, okay, both of you settle down, all right? There's literally no reason at all for you to be fighting over something like this. Besides, I don't think all three of you can be able to fit in that bed of yours, Luan." Lori said, "Now give me a moment here…"

She took a few seconds to think it over, then she had an idea.

"All right, how about this: Lynn, you go with Luna and Lincoln, you can stay with Leni. As for you, Luan, I know you can sleep on your own even with a thunderstorm going on."

"Yeah, I can." Luan confirmed with a nod.

"Good, and are you guys okay with my plan?" Lori asked of Leni and Luna.

"Yeah, sure thing, Lori." Luna replied.

"Yay! We get to have a sleepover, Linky!" Leni answered, going over to her little brother.

She carried Lincoln over to her room while Luna took Lynn by the hand and brought her youngest sister to her room as well.

"Okay, that's settled, I guess." Lori said, looking back over to Luan, "Well, good night, Luan."

"Good night, Lori." Luan said back.

With that, Lori headed back over to her room, took her glasses and put the on the nightstand, and finally turned off the lamp before trying to go back to sleep.

Just a few minutes later, though, and with the thunderstorm getting more intense, Lori felt an additional weight being added onto her bed. She rolled over and saw Luan had joined along with her.

"This storm's literally too much for you I'm guessing?" Lori inquired.

"Uh-huh…" Luan said, nodding fearfully, "I can go back, but…"

"Hey, don't worry, it's okay. I understand." Lori interrupted, smiling at her.

She brought her younger sister close to her and Luan snuggled up right away.

"Thanks, Lori. You're the best big sister ever."

"Well...I'd go for being _a_ great big sister, but thanks anyway, Luan. That's nice of you to say."

Lori gave Luan a kiss on the forehead and both settled in for what looks to be a something of a bumpy stormy night not just for them, but of course for their siblings as well. But with a younger one in the comforting presence of an older one, it is hoped that it'll be relaxing enough to get through.

* * *

It was now Sunday afternoon and for as much as this experiment of Lori managing things on her own was fun, it finally had to come to an end. Any moment now, their parents would be coming home from their relaxing vacation and though it was assumed they had a wonderful time, coming home to their kids might just be the highlight of it all.

At long last, Vanzilla pulled up on the driveway and no sooner did Lynn Sr. and Rita step on out, collect their things and went inside their home, they were greeted by an enthusiastic group hug times six.

"Hey, kids! Guess you noticed were back, huh?" Lynn Sr. said with a laugh.

"And we're glad to be back home, too!" Rita added.

They joined in on the hug once they briefly were able to place their stuff down for a second.

"So, how did everything go while we're gone?" Rita asked.

"Oh, well...they, uh…" Lori attempted saying.

"They went great, Mom!" Luan suddenly said.

"Yeah they did! Lori, like, did a great job looking after us!" Leni added.

"She made sure we were on our best behavior!" Luna chimed in.

"Best big sister ever!" Lynn Jr. chirped happily.

"Yay Lori!" Lincoln babbled to round it out.

"Wow, really? That's good to hear! In fact, we didn't get any calls from you, so things must've been smooth sailing if that's the case." Lynn Sr. said proudly.

"Yeah, of course, sure…" Lori said.

"Well, give us a few minutes to put our things away and then maybe we'd like to hear more about what you kids did together in our time away." Rita suggested.

"And we can tell you about our trip, too! Man, it was a wonderful time!" Lynn Sr. added.

The kids stepped aside and allowed their parents to head over to their room so they can take care of business. In the meantime, though, a puzzled eldest sister had a curiosity she had to ask.

"Hey, how come you guys didn't let me tell them about some of the more awful things I've done?" Lori asked.

"Well, do they need to know?" Luan wondered.

"Well, yeah they do, especially the part where I hurt Lynn and Lincoln! That's something you can't keep from them!" Lori emphasized.

"No, but maybe we'll tell them later on. They seemed so happy about coming home and having a great time, so why wreck their mood now?" Luna posited.

"But when that time comes, we'll all be here for you and explain everything about how bad you felt doing that, okay?" Leni added.

This logic was very much confusing to Lori, though she did have to appreciate their effort in at least delaying the inevitable for the moment at least for her sake. She would ask more, but that would wait as she felt herself become surrounded by a group hug from her siblings.

"Thanks, you guys...I guess…" Lori said, chuckling awkwardly, "But really, even with this defense of me aside, I'm very appreciative of you all bearing with me during my difficulties yesterday. I love you."

"We love you, too, Lori." Her sisters reciprocated.

"Wuv you, Lori." Lincoln added in his way.

That love was shared equally among them all, but if Lori was being honest, she held some special appreciation for Leni in particular in this moment for her efforts the other day. Sometimes she's not always the brightest or most aware of the siblings, but she truly showed to Lori that she can be insightful when she really can be.

Thanks to Leni's efforts, Lori knew that she'd never needed to be too bossy in order to compensate for her appearance at this stage of her life. How she looked never changed the indisputable fact she was an eternally devoted big sister to her five younger siblings who she loved dearly, and she knew that when she need to lay it down sometimes, she knew that how she'll approach it is down to three simple effective words: firm but fair.

**Author's Note:**

> Boom, another one done! You can probably guess I love emphasizing Lori's big sister role a lot in this AU, don't I? Of course that can go for each subsequent sister down the line, too, and that'll be shown as we go on.
> 
> This may sound like an odd thing to bring up before I let you go, but it's about of all things, bedroom arrangements. So far, Lori, Leni and Luna have their own rooms and Luan, Lynn and Lincoln share the same one. However, Luan will get her own room soon as will be briefly mentioned in the next story that's a part of this AU and the one after that will have Lynn and Lincoln getting separate rooms of their own as a major plot point. So there's your official teaser for what's to come, especially for the latter.
> 
> Okay, that wraps it up for now. Thank you for reading, and I'm sure all of those in back even know what is always said next, I'll see you again very soon!


End file.
